In recent years, various kinds of inverter-integrated electric compressors formed by integrally installing inverters therein have been proposed as compressors for air conditioners adopted in vehicles. In such a vehicle-air-conditioner electric compressor of an inverter-integrated type, an inverter accommodating section (i.e., an inverter box) is provided at a periphery of a housing containing an electric motor and a compression mechanism, and an inverter, which converts direct-current power supplied from a high-voltage power source to three-phase alternating-current power and supplies it to the electric motor via glass-insulated terminals, is installed inside the inverter accommodating section, so that the rotation speed of the electric compressor can be controlled according to the air-conditioning load. Such an inverter-integrated electric compressor for a vehicle is known from, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2.
As discussed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the aforementioned inverter is constituted by, for example, a power circuit board having mounted thereon power semiconductor switching devices that generally receive high voltage and a gate circuit for operating these devices; a control board (printed board) having mounted thereon control and communication circuits that operate at low voltage; high-voltage components such as a head capacitor (i.e., a smoothing capacitor), an inductor coil, and a common mode coil that are connected to high-voltage power lines; and a bus bar assembly for use as electrical wiring between high-voltage power-supply terminals, the high-voltage components, and the power circuit board. These components are accommodated inside the inverter accommodating section (i.e., an inverter box or an outer shell) so as to be integrated into the electric compressor.
Patent Document 1:
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2004-190547
Patent Document 2:
The Publication of Japanese Patent No. 3760887